Epstein laments lost millions, blames Mexico F1 race and weather

[AustinF1]

A ‘tough weekend’ for Austin’s Formula 1 after rain, Mexico race

 

By Marty Toohey - American-Statesman Staff

Shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday, the city of Austin tweeted out a message urging Formula One fans not to drive out to Austin’s track for the weekend’s F1 race. Since the downpours had turned many of the lots into mud pits and the park-and-ride lots were full, a shuttle service was set up to make quick runs from the Austin Convention Center to the track.

It didn’t go as smoothly as the track’s management had hoped.

Fans slog through mud at Turn 1 at the F1 U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday. (Jay Janner photo)

Shortly after Lewis Hamilton won the U.S. Grand Prix in one of the closest races in modern F1 history, a large portion of the crowd — announced at just more than 100,000 — found itself waiting for buses that took as long as two hours to get them out of the lot. A stream of people were walking in the streets around the track, a relatively isolated site just east of Austin, trying to stay out of the bogs and getting in the way of the buses.

“It was a tough weekend,” said Bobby Epstein, chairman of Circuit of the Americas.

In a wide-ranging interview with the American-Statesman, Epstein lauded the efforts of thousands of employees and volunteers who endured the downpours, highlighted a post-race Elton John show that delighted an audience of more than 40,000, touted the race’s contribution to Austin’s economy and remained upbeat about the long-term financial potential of Circuit of the Americas. But Epstein said a confluence of problems last weekend resulted in “a financially devastating weekend for the company” that operates the track and is still losing money.

 

Race fans endure rain while waiting for the start of F1 Practice Session 2, at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday. (Jay Janner photo)

 

“We lost millions on concessions” that under normal circumstances race fans would have purchased, Epstein said. “And we suffered from some fans having such a bad experience they won’t be back, though I hope we can change their mind.”

 

The main issue was the weather. More than 6 inches fell over the weekend, spun off of Hurricane Patricia, which was for a time the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere. Epstein said that on Oct. 21, as the magnitude of the upcoming weather problems became clear, Circuit of the Americas staff began scouring the region for buses to help with transportation.

 

The Austin school district produced 40 buses to rent, in addition to those the track had already chartered for its shuttle service. Travis County rented nearby lots to Circuit of the Americas, Epstein said. And the Del Valle school district allowed the track to use its nearby high school’s lot as a shuttle pickup.

“We had help from every corner of this community,” Epstein said.

On Saturday, some fans who had arrived that morning found the gates closed as the qualifying rounds kept being pushed back before finally being canceled. Formula One races can run in the rain — it can add a layer of strategy — but the lightning made the cancellation necessary, Epstein said. He said track officials made the decision to delay the opening to give employees and volunteers some respite after having worked extended shifts for days in the cold, windy, damp weather.

Qualifying resumed at 9 a.m. Sunday but was cut short by the weather. The rain finally cleared in the afternoon, and the race was run.

Throughout the weekend, track officials posted warnings through their website and social media telling people that many of the parking lots had become unusable morasses.

The roads around the track also lack sidewalks. And when many race attendees chose paid parking on the property of nearby residents, their choice was to either navigate a series of swamps or walk in the road alongside automobiles, Epstein said.

On Sunday morning, that wasn’t a big problem. But when the race let out, the people walking on the roads gummed up what was meant to be “relatively quick loops for the buses” to the park-and-ride lots, Epstein said. Track officials did set up bus-only lanes in some areas, a process that took about an hour.

The weather exacerbated an attendance dip that appears to have been caused by a new F1 race that will be run in Mexico this weekend. Speculation that the Mexico City event could give that country’s fans their fill of F1 racing turned out to be true, Epstein said.

“The Mexico race hurt us,” Epstein said.

The announced Sunday attendance of 101,667 — down from an estimated 107,778 last year and 117,429 for the inaugural 2012 race — would actually have otherwise topped last year, were it not for the race in Mexico, he said.

Epstein declined to give specific figures, but he said the drop in Mexican attendance cost the track millions.

The weekend was a financial setback for one of Austin’s most polarizing civic features — one beloved in some circles and hated in others. Circuit of the Americas has become a flash point in larger cultural arguments about what the Austin of the future should be. Critics have also savaged a special tax arrangement the track made with the state — an arrangement that track officials say is key to its financial survival, even if future races avoid the setbacks of this weekend.

The track isn’t owned or managed by the billion-dollar F1 racing enterprise, but by an independent ownership group. Each year the track’s ownership group pays a fee to Formula One for the privilege of hosting the race. It is widely speculated that the fee is large enough that all of the sales tax revenue the state gives up, about $24 million a year, is paid to Formula One.

To critics, this is a giveaway of public money. The state officials who struck the deal said it is worthwhile because the tourism generated by the race is a significant net-gain for the region’s economy. And track officials say the deal is a lifeline. Even with ticket sales and concessions, the track loses money on Formula One and the annual X Games competition.

Even smaller, profitable events haven’t gotten the track’s finances into the black, because track owners are still paying off the construction debt, in addition to operating costs and other expenses, Epstein said.

Austin F1 race day attendance

2015 — 101,667

2014 — 107,778

2013 — 113,162

2012 --- 117,429

[rebelracewriter]

“The Mexico race hurt us,” Epstein said.

BOOM!

 

Karma's a bitch isn't it Mr. Epstein.....It appears to me that attendance figures(which are suspect at best) keep going down.....So losing only 6,000 people made the show a failure? What about the 6,000 the year before, or the 4,000 the year before that? I'm guessing Mr. Epstein is a liberal, always blaming someone/something else for their own problems. You, and your band of thieves, pissed off a lot of people all due to greed. Now it's coming back at you, in spades.

[HiTech]

THE tears rolling down my cheeks is from my ribs hurting like hell from laughter ...in a year or two they wont have anything but rattle snake races out there ...